10 Video Games That Were Cancelled (But Not Why You Think)
4. It Didn't Meet Bethesda's Quality Expectations - Prey 2
Why You Thought It Was Cancelled
One of the most infuriatingly cancelled video games of all time is surely Prey 2, the planned sequel to 2006's cult sci-fi FPS Prey.
The sequel was announced not long after the first game's release, yet once the series' rights were acquired by Bethesda in 2009, word largely went quiet on development until the publisher confirmed Prey 2's cancellation in 2014.
Given Prey's relatively modest sales and Bethesda being in the business of mega-seller AAA games, many annoyed fans off-handedly assumed that this was simply a decision based on numbers above all else.
Why It Was Actually Cancelled
But in actual fact, Bethesda's Pete Hines confirmed the cancellation occurred not for cynical number-crunching reasons but because they just didn't feel like the game was shaping up well enough:
"It was a game we believed in, but we never felt that it got to where it needed to be – we never saw a path to success if we finished it. It wasn't up to our quality standard, and we decided to cancel it."
It's admittedly a line that's difficult for Prey fans to believe given how fantastic the game's early preview footage looked.
But we're obviously not privy to the same access that Bethesda's higher-ups were given, so presumably the entirety of the project wasn't quite as coherent as the footage suggests.
Ultimately Bethesda finally released a well-received franchise reboot in 2017.